Children gather to form an image of a tree around a sign that reads in Spanish "The world we want" on a beach during the Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru. Low oil prices could paradoxically help the world reach an international agreement to fight global warming, Laurence Tubiana, France’s special representative for the 2015 climate conference in Paris said, laying out plans for a binding accord to stem greenhouse gas emissions. Her government will spend 11 months trying to cajole more than 190 countries into overcoming disagreements about acceptable greenhouse gas emissions and who should pay for them, and locking themselves into an accord.

The Monitor’s View “A universal hug in global pact on climate change” (Dec. 29, 2014 & Jan. 5, 2015) states, “[I]t is welcome news when all nations ... embrace a pact to do something ... about carbon emissions.” Regrettably, Taiwan was excluded from the climate talks in Lima, Peru, even though the island nation is one of the leading economies in the world, a thriving democracy in East Asia, and willing to commit to reducing its carbon emissions proactively.

Climate change is real and is affecting us now. Climate change is going to affect generations for years to come. No country is immune to the effects of global warming, so it is of extreme importance that we address these challenges in a global manner to ensure our planet’s sustainable development. The continuous exclusion of Taiwan from the global summit runs counter to the global efforts to address climate change. Let Taiwan join the global action so that it can contribute to climate change dialogue on the global stage.

More checks needed for emissions

Reports on the Lima climate conference (“Nations try new approach to treaty” and “A universal hug in global pact on climate change,” Dec. 29, 2014 & Jan. 5, 2015) tell a good-news, bad-news story. Some progress was made toward international agreements to curb greenhouse gas emissions, but those current agreements are inadequate to do the necessary job. A climate pact that takes effect in 2020 may well be too late to keep global warming below the agreed upon “safe” limit of 2 degrees C.

The Lima agreements also create a role for nongovernmental organizations to fill in where the nations have refused to commit. That would be for the purpose of analyzing the collective consequences of the various nations’ self-imposed emissions-limiting plans and monitoring the nations’ performance in meeting those limits, thereby holding the world’s nations accountable for their contributions to stabilizing climate disruption.